Unity colleges and the battle for survival | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News

Once considered as some of the best in Nigeria, unity schools seem to be gliding from glory to the gutters, writes Head, Education Desk, IYABO LAWAL

From its glamorous state, Nigeria’s unity schools are becoming disgraceful. Where did things go wrong?The first set of unity schools established by the British colonial masters; three new ones were added in Warri, Sokoto, and Enugu in 1966 while General Yakubu Gowon, in 1973, ensured there such schools in all the 12 states back then.

Animasaun added that the ethnic, cultural, religious and social backgrounds of the students were diverse with pupils from wealthy and influential families mingling freely with pupils from humble homes. Two years ago, the college was shut down following the death of three boarding students who began vomiting and stooling after allegedly drinking contaminated water.

An airborne flu-like disease had broken out last week in the college raising fears of another epidemic.at Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos. Slowly too, mediocrity has crept in and eroded merit as the disparity in cut-off marks created a divide. Some pupils are admitted into unity schools with as low as two marks in the common entrance examinations while some can only get into the same schools with at least 130 marks.

“We pay our PTA levy regularly, but in the last two years, we don’t know what the school management is doing with the funds. There was a time my son had to leave school to have his bath at home. The boy said there is no water in the school. The parents are even ready to meet the principal and know the problems so that we can assist the school for the interest of our children, but we have no access to the school principal,” he said.

“The new measures are aimed at arresting the shocking trend where development levies imposed on parents by PTAs are becoming higher than the school fees charged by the government which established the unity schools.”

Same place everything goes wrong in Nigeria - a lack of maintenance. Smh

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